Failing efforts

Where is Cindy McCain? She became the director of the World Food Programme (WFP) in April but is rarely seen trying to raise awareness of the rapidly growing number of hungry people around the world or raising funds to feed them. Despite a reduction in funding during 2022, the WFP provided food aid to a record 158 million people in more than 120 countries.

When taking up the WFP post, Cindy McCain warned, “Ration cuts are coming if we don’t have the money to get food to those who need it most. My priorities are clear: increase our resources, improve our effectiveness, and scale up partnerships and innovation to bring modern solutions to those most in need.” She vowed to make “new friends, especially from the private sector, to step up and join us.” This approach has not worked well.

Her approach contrasts mightily with the energetic efforts of her predecessor David Beasley who from 2017 mounted high profile, highly personal campaigns to secure funding and succour the poor. During his time in office the WFP was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Beasley’s term at the WFP was extended by a year although US President Joe Biden was reluctant to renew the independent-minded, tough-talking Beasley. He had bipartisan backing in Congress.

Early this year, Biden nominated McCain to the post which is traditionally held by a US citizen. McCain was US ambassador to the United Nations agencies for food and agriculture which are based in Rome. A Republican and widow of the late Republican US Senator John McCain, Cindy McCain backed Democrat Biden against Republican Donald Trump in the 2020 election. The McCains and Bidens have been close friends for four decades.

The US is the largest donor to the WFP and provided $7 billion in 2022 during that year funding reached $14.1 billion although $21.4 billion was needed to finance its key programmes. However, during 2023, the US donated through December 19th only $2,754,480,367 of a total 7,806,864,105, just over a third of the agency’s operational requirements. This was the worst shortfall in the WFP’s 60-year history at a time there are 735 million hungry people around the world. Biden secured his candidate in the top job and promptly let the WFP down.

Consequently, the WFP has cut life saving deliveries to Gaza and the West Bank in Palestine, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, and elsewhere. The WFP’s website states, “The tragic irony is that many of the places where WFP operates should not only be thriving by themselves but producing food for people in other countries to consume too.”

The WFP is supplying three million Ukrainians with ready-to-eat meals for families in frontline areas and cash assistance in locations where banks and markets are open. The WFP cites Matthew Hollingworth, its country director for Ukraine, who stated, “We’re delivering food assistance in one of the most fertile countries in the world. It’s perverse. We shouldn’t need to be here – but we are, and we do.” Ukraine is one of the few countries which could feed itself and continues to feed others during the war.

Ukrainian grain and sunflower oil have been exported due to an agreement opening a maritime corridor from several of the country’s Black Sea ports. This has helped to bring down global food prices which remain at a 10-year high. The WFP has transported 380,000 tons of wheat to support our operations in Ethiopia, Yemen, Afghanistan, and Somalia, where hunger rages.

War-ravaged, Taliban-ruled, isolated Afghanistan is country which cannot feed itself. At the start of 2023, the WFP aided 13 million people. In May this was cut to 3 million. In June, in the West Bank and Gaza, the WFP dropped 200,000 people, 60 percent of those supported in Palestine. The WFP has joined calls for a ceasefire in Gaza where 1.8-2 million are in desperate need of food. The WFP reduced rations to 3.2 million, 40 percent of the 5.5 million who formerly received half rations, but this will end in coming weeks.

The WFP stated on its website, “We are in danger of entering a humanitarian doom loop, where WFP saves the starving at the cost of allowing millions of other hungry people to sink deeper into hunger and move closer to the edge of starvation.”

Biden administration politics in Gaza appear to be complicating McCain’s mission. Helen Murphy reported on Devex Newswire on November 24th that pressure on Cindy McCain to resign immediately as head of the WFP is rising. WFP staff members have sent an anonymous letter to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Biden, and the WFP’s board complaining that she has not responded to the crisis in Gaza. She has neither called for a Gaza ceasefire nor demanded peace on behalf of the WFP.

Another letter castigated her for attending the annual prize for Leadership in Public Service, named after John McCain, honouring the people of Israel. WFP staff from the Palestine, Syria Jordan, and Egypt country offices refused to go to the meeting after questioning the neutrality of McCain’s leadership.

She did not attend a Rome commemoration for Palestinian UN workers killed during Israel’s bombardment of Gaza and did not follow the example of the head of the Palestinian refuge relief agency, UNRWA, Philippe Lazarini, by visiting Gaza. He is a staunch defender of the Palestinian people and has made multiple visits to Gaza.

UN children’s agency chief, UNICEF, Catherine Russell entered Gaza in November after sustaining minor injuries in a traffic incident while being driven from Cairo to Rafah. She said she had seen “devastating” scenes and urged Israel and Hamas to “stop this horror.” She made a show of neutrality when she declared, “Inside the Strip, there is nowhere safe for Gaza’s one million children to turn.” However, instead of naming Israel as the culprit for specific human rights violations, she stated, “The parties to the conflict are committing grave violations against children. These include killing, maiming, abductions, attacks on schools and hospitals, and the denial of humanitarian access – all of which UNICEF condemns.”

Photo: TNS